High speed data service has become common in homes and businesses and the demand for high speed data service has seen an upward trend in recent years. Not only are consumers using the services provided over high speed data connections more often, but they are also using the connections for more purposes. For example, a consumer may receive Internet service, telephony service, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) data, and other content services over one connection. In addition to the increased use of high speed data services, some of the applications themselves are becoming more complicated and require an increasing amount of bandwidth for transmission.
As the demand for high speed data service grows, high speed data service providers must increase the bandwidth available to consumers or risk compromising the consumer's data experience. Furthermore, high speed data service providers must be able to monitor the provision of such services, as well as the bandwidth utilization on specific ports, so that they can determine when an increase in bandwidth is necessary.